Wigan airways,
Thanks for posting those photos which were a trip down memory lane. I must correct you one one small point however. It wasn't John Mulvaney who returned G-BFYA to Veritair at Cardiff - it was me. John (where are you?) must have been doing a ground run or something when you took the photo.
Funny story actually - Joe McGaghy (bless him), the owner of Clyde Helicopters - sent a few friends around to the hangar at SECC to repaint G-BYFA in the Vertair colour scheme at the end of the Police contract lease (must have been around June 1990). They were not professional aircraft spray painters and did a less than satisfactory job. In fact it looked shocking close up and the Welsh Dragon on the tail looked more like Father Christmas.
I was told to fly it down to Cardiff one Sunday and was not looking forward to the reception I expected when Vertair saw what we had done to their Bo105. Myself and Sgt Eddie Haggarty flew it down to Cardiff via a very scenic route through the Lake District - having a close inspection of a few summits (we were both keen hillwalkers), refuel and lunch at Blackpool and eventually landing at Cardiff heliport in the afternoon.
I was very happy and somewhat relieved to discover that the Veritair office was all shut up and there was no one to witness the sorry looking state of their prodigal helicopter. We ended up leaving it parked at the heliport, put the keys through the letter box, climbed over the fence to get out, caught a taxi to the station and a train back to Glasgow.
Never did find out what Mr Verity thought of the paint job!
P.S What was that wonderful (expensive) restaurant called next to Clyde Heliport in your photos? I had my 32nd birthday dinner there - the first time I ever spent over £100 on a dinner for two - a Kings Ransom in those days. Wonderful summer that...
